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Feral World
Life on a Feral World At first glance, feral worlds might appear backward when compared to more technologically advanced worlds. They are indeed trapped in superstition and ignorance, but no less so than the denizens on any Imperial world, and the concept of progress is as unknown here as anywhere else. Their barbaric nature is as pronounced as on other planets, but here it displays a harsh, personal brutality and dispenses with any veneer of higher civilisation. Feral worlders can view weather conditions as signs from the sky-gods, and the remains of ancient devastated civilisations as relics from ancestors who touched the heavens before hubris brought them low. This is no different, however, than a hive labourer who tills powerful machinery through rote actions and dogmatic chants, or reflexively makes the sign of the Aquila before entering a hab-room for the first time. Both see the world around them through a thick fog of superstition, not even knowing that there is more to know. To live in the Imperium is to live in ignorance, an awful but blissful experience compared to the horrible truths that Inquisitors know. Feral worlds are as important to the Imperium as any of its planets, and each tithes men and materials just like any other world. This means that even if most of the population is ignorant of other planets, often a ruling elite connects to the Imperium and governs the world for it. Populations on feral worlds are often kept in check by their faith in the Imperial Creed, and the Ecclesiarchy ensures that instilling this faith is the first step when incorporating such a world into the Imperium. On many such worlds, the local religions and beliefs have thus been supplanted by the faith in the Emperor, although it could be that He is known by different names, such as the Sky-Father, Master of Storms, or Star Lord by the primitive natives. Even if a feral worlder knows little of the Imperium, it is doubtless that he has heard tell of the Emperor and was raised to revere Him as a god. feral World rules A character from a feral world applies the following benefits during character creation: CharaCteristiC modifiers + Strength, + Toughness, – Influence fate threshold 2 (Emperor’s Blessing 3+) home World bonus The Old Ways: In the hands of a feral world character, any Low-Tech weapon loses the Primitive quality (if it had it) and gains the Proven (3) quality. home World aPtitude Toughness Wounds A feral world character starts with 9+1d5 wounds. reCommended baCkgrounds Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Imperial Guard, Outcast 32 3 3 Chapter II: CharaCter CreatIon There is a near-limitless variety of feral worlds, each different from the next, often mixing ancient cultures and technological levels in a myriad of combinations. For example, one could be little more than an alien wilderness of volcanic tundra, where ignorant tribesmen bow down to effigies of the Emperor, whom they call the Father-of-Lightning. Here they hunt flying lizards across deserts of ash and dust, using weapons of black volcanic glass, until the skymen call them to serve beyond the world’s edge, never to return. Another world could be an endless swamp, covered with complex territories of nomadic tribes who wear the bones and skins of great amphibians, and constantly war with each other for survival. Some show the signs of previously-advanced civilisations, long since blasted to ruins from war or natural catastrophe. Man might live in crude caves nested in crashed orbital towers that could predate the Imperium, or perhaps be of xenos origin. Hunters could use spears tipped with fractal metal shavings to fend off beasts mutated from domestic pets. Feral worlds are defined only by their limited level of technology, where populations have little choice but to live in a primitive state. Feral worlders may become inured to the appearance of voidships in their skies and mighty armoured warriors in their cities, their people accepting their place in the universe, perhaps even scorning the sky-men for their feeble reliance on metal trickery when the test of a true man can only be measured in muscle and bone. Feral worlders might one day leave their planet, either taken as part of manpower tithes or as part of an Inquisitor’s warband, but still retain the primal essence their upbringing provided.